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Top posts of 2013 - #2

The 2nd most popular post this year was about the disciples attitudes to opposition in Acts:

When
they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the
chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it,
they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who
made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who
through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,“‘Why did the Gentiles rage,

and the peoples plot in vain?The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers were gathered together,against the Lord and against his Anointed’—for
truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy
servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along
with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand
and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon
their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word
with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs
and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together
was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued
to speak the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4:23-31, ESV)

After
Peter and John have been told to stop spreading the message about
Jesus, they go back to the other disicples and report what has happened.
Their response is to pray. Their prayer recognises God's sovereignty and the futility of men setting themselves up against that sovereign God - they quote from psalm 2 about people plotting against God in vain and psalm 2 goes on to speak about God laughing at those plans.

They also pray about the ongoing mission - they aren't praying against their opponents and they are not praying explicitly about their own safety, they are praying that God would give them the boldness to continue spreading the gospel. They know that this will only happen through the power of the Holy Spirit

When we face opposition, we can tend to take it to heart. It devastates us.
Everything seems doomed. And the opposition we face is often nothing
more than the potential that people might think we are a bit weird, it's
not in the league of the disciples experience. We have a lot to learn
from this passage. People set themselves up against God but it is futile
because God is sovereign. And because God is in control, I don't need
to panic or be anxious - his plan will not be thwarted by this
opposition. I don't then need to just suck it up and act like I'm not
bothered, I need to pray that God will give me boldness, recognising my
own lack of courage and depending on the power of the Holy Spirit to
enable me to participate in God's mission.